Maryland Basketball

COLLEGE PARK - A season that started with Dez Wells missing makeable shots in a one-point loss to Connecticut at the Barclays Center, a season punctuated by Charles Mitchell doing the same in a two-point loss at No. 5 Duke nine days ago, was summed up Monday night in the closing seconds of a 57-55 loss to No. 4 Syracuse at Comcast Center. Jake Layman, close to a 70-percent free throw shooter for his college career, missed the first of two free throws and could have tied the score with 47.7 seconds to go. Wells, one of the toughest players to stop in the ACC when he's going downhill with the ball, passed up a drive to the basket and gave the ball to Nick Faust in a tougher position on the baseline.

COLLEGE PARK - As a disappointing season gave way to a tumultuous offseason earlier this year, Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon waited anxiously for the start of preseason practice. With an overhauled roster and a new offense, the Terps are scheduled to begin practice Friday as they get ready for their first season in the Big Ten Conference. Maryland, which finished 17-15 in its Atlantic Coast Conference farewell and failed for the fourth straight year to make the NCAA tournament, opens the 2014-15 season Nov. 14 against Wagner.

Let's look at what we know so far about Maryland's men's basketball nonconference schedule. We know about the Kentucky game in Brooklyn (the Barclays Center Classic) on Nov. 9. We know about the game at Northwestern in the ACC / Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 27. Maryland is committed to play again in the BB&T tournament at Washington's Verizon Center in December. While final details are being worked out, the Terps are expected to play George Mason this year. And then there are three more games - LIU-Brooklyn, Morehead State and Lafayette - that the Terps will host as part of the Barclays tournament.

The Maryland men's basketball team recently participated in two-day training session with members from The Program, a team building and leadership development company. Led by a former Navy SEAL, the Terps were put through physical and mental exercises intended to facilitate teamwork and communication. Check out the video below, courtesy of the Maryland athletic department.

Based on what I've seen and heard (i.e., "reporting"), here are some preseason thoughts about Maryland basketball: I think Sean Mosley will be much improved over last season, when he shot 41.3 percent from the field and averaged 8.1 points after averaging 10.1 the season before. I've noted before that he acknowledged passing up good looks at the basket -- a telltale sign that a player is overthinking on the court. New Terps coach Mark Turgeon has clearly sought to raise Mosley's confidence by giving him more responsibilities as a scorer and team leader.

Earl Badu, a former Maryland basketball player and St. Frances graduate, died after he had jumped to his death Thursday morning. Badu, 33, had jumped from the I-95 overpass onto I-695, where he fell about 50 feet, Baltimore County police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said in an email. She said Badu was still alive at the scene when medic crews arrived around 9 a.m. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview, where doctors pronounced him dead. According to online court records, just six days before his death Badu received a five-year suspended sentence for passing a bad check in Montgomery County.

Maryland's lack of any inside presence at both ends of the court was a large part of its disappointing 17-15 season. Trying to rectify that, the Terps have added Slovakian 7-footer Michal Cekovsky, who spent last season playing at a basketball academy in the Canary Islands. According to a source familiar with Maryland's recruiting, Cekovsky will be eligible to play in the 2014-15 season. "He can really, really play," the source said. Cekovsky will join a recruiting class that already includes 7-foot-1 Trayvon Reed, who moved from his home outside Atlanta to play his senior year at Life Center Academy in Burlington, N.J. That class, led by McDonald's All-American Melo Trimble, is currently ranked 14th in the country by ESPN.com.

COLLEGE PARK - Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams announced the signing of small forward Shane Clark from Philadelphia to a National Letter of Intent to play for the Terrapins, beginning in the fall of 2005. Clark, a 6-7, 195-pound forward, is set to begin his senior season of high school at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., this fall. "Shane is a complete player on the court. He can do many things - he's a great scorer, he plays defense well and he can mix it up on the glass," said Williams.

Unlike Mark Turgeon's first three years at Maryland, when a lack of early-season road experience and not many tough non-league games left his men's basketball team a little ill-prepared for what it would face in the ACC, the Terps should be more battle-tested when they start play in the Big Ten. Unlike Maryland's final season in the ACC, most of the Big Ten's marquee programs will be coming to College Park. The 2014-15 schedule, which was unveiled Thursday night on the Big Ten Network, includes a previously announced first-round matchup against Arizona State in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City on Nov. 24 as well as a home game against longtime rival Virginia on Dec. 3 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Maryland's men's basketball team will play one "Super Tuesday" game on ESPN in 2015, facing Wisconsin at the Xfinity Center at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24. ESPN's "Super Tuesday" schedule -- which features a game from the Big Ten and SEC each week -- was announced Wednesday. Wisconsin, which reached the Final Four this past season, is on the "Super Tuesday" schedule four times. The Terps are 2-5 all-time against the Badgers, with the teams last meeting in 2009 in Madison. In a previously announced game, Maryland will play host to Virginia in the Big Ten-ACC challenge at 9:15 p.m. on Dec. 3. That game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN2.

In this week's recruiting roundup, Maryland football gets three new commits and Maryland basketball gets good news from a blue-chipper. Football recruiting -- Class of 2015 inside-linebacker target Gus Little announced Thursday that he committed to Maryland . -- Then, hours later, Class of 2015 inside-linebacker target Brett Zanotto did the same, giving the Terps' class its 11th member . -- Class of 2015 center target...

Former Maryland women's basketball player Jasmina Perazic was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday. She became Maryland's fourth inductee, behind longtime coach Chris Weller (2010) and players Tara Heiss (2003) and Vicky Bullett (2011). Perazic was inducted as a part of the 2014 class, along with WNBA coach Lin Dunn, former Iowa star player Michelle Edwards, broadcaster Mimi Griffin and former Southern Illinois women's athletic director Charlotte West at a ceremony in Knoxville, Tenn.

Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus and producer-editor Jonas Shaffer weigh in on three topics from the past week in Maryland sports. With the live evaulation period of the 2015 recruiting class starting this weekend, who's on Maryland radar and who do the Terps have a realistic shot at getting? Don Markus: Considering the players Maryland loses after next season, this is going to be an important recruiting class - perhaps the most important for Mark Turgeon based on who he's going to have to replace.

Four-fifths of Maryland's highly ranked 2014 recruiting class will be showcased Saturday in the 41st Capital Classic at T.C. Williams High in Alexandria, Va. Unlike two years ago, when all five players recruited by the Terps played together, this year's game will feature two on each team. Guards Melo Trimble and Dion Wiley will represent the Capital All-Stars, while center Trayvon Reed and small forward Jared Nickens will play for the U.S. All-Stars. Joining Trimble and Wiley on the Capital All-Stars will be two Baltimore-area players, Villanova-bound Phil Booth Jr. (Mount St. Joseph)

COLLEGE PARK - Mark Turgeon used to drive the identical route to the arena before every home game. The Maryland men's basketball coach would put on his tie at precisely the same time before his team took the floor. When he recruited players, he had a strategy for just where he needed to sit during home visits. Were these merely regimens? Rituals? Somewhere along Turgeon's long and largely successful basketball road, the line between habit and superstition became blurred. That's the way it goes for many college coaches - and especially Turgeon - who are full of attempts to manipulate fortune.

Welcome to a second season of Morning Shootaround. We will follow the Terps throughout the 2013-14 season, but this year in this space we will provide a look ahead rather than looking back. We will try to analyze Maryland's strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of its upcoming opponent. We also hope to provide quotes and anecdotes from practices to give some idea of what Mark Turgeon and his team are doing. Here are a few things to look for as the Terps get ready to play at Clemson Sunday.

The Maryland women's basketball team's run to the Final Four triggered bonuses topping $100,000 for head coach Brenda Frese. The Terps upset top-seeded Tennessee and recorded three other NCAA tournament victories to advance to their first Final Four since 2006. Frese's bonuses total $100,507, based on her contract terms. According to the contract, Frese was to get “competition bonuses” for reaching the NCAA tournament's first round ($5,000), second round ($10,000), Sweet Sixteen ($15,000)

Thank you, Lady Terps , for bringing me back to the game. I've been gone a long time. Eighteen years, in fact, and I never thought I'd be back. I let my last jump-shot fly off my fingertips back in 1996. And I haven't touched a basketball since. I don't recall whether that final shot swished, bricked, toilet-bowled or something in between. I don't recall whether I managed to block a few shots (likely, given my monkey arms), how many times coach bellowed at me to box out (many, I am certain)